Letter: Ahoj to Dobra Tea in Black Mountain

Posted on by Letters
Graphic by Lori Deaton

I was so distressed to open the Mountain Xpress a few weekends ago and discover that Dobra Tea in Black Mountain is closing for good [“Small Bites,” June 27]. “Dobra” loosely translated means “good” in Czech, and my mother, Milena, who hails from Brno, the Czech Republic, and I would sometimes repair there after a short Sunday hike in nearby Montreat. It was one of our most favorite spots in Black Mountain to catch up on each other’s news and indulge in numerous international teas, veggie spring rolls and matcha cheesecake.

My mother was particularly tickled by the fact the interior woodwork of each Dobra Tea location was handcrafted by Czech carpenters in the Czech Republic, then shipped over here and reassembled by the same artisans.

I realize there are still two other Dobra Tea locations where we can meet in the Asheville area — the one on Haywood Road in West Asheville and the one downtown on North Lexington Avenue. That’s not the point, though. The point is that all of the unique, lovely, authentic spaces in this town are rapidly being snatched up and turned into something ubiquitous, bland and elitist. Where are the affordable housing initiatives, the community garden fundraisers, the extended and fair-free master transit plan?

And what exactly is going in the bottom level of that building? Yet another brewery? Perhaps these Ashevilleans need to start learning that the Czech word for beer is pivo!

— Kristina Orchard-Hays
Asheville

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7 thoughts on “Letter: Ahoj to Dobra Tea in Black Mountain”

  1. don

    Perhaps these Ashevilleans need to start learning that the Czech word for beer is pivo…. and start making some drinkable pilsners and lagers.. unlike the crap they make now (seriously ;)

    • Lulz

      LOL well at least we agree on this. I actually am a Newcastle drinker but a good lager on a hot summer day is OK too.

      • Bright

        Finding good beer in Aville is an impossibility. Find someone with an old Czech daddy who has a plain old recipe for plain old, lager and make it! Dang, cutsie is easy…real beer seems unknown around here. (Better beer would make this place more tolerable, too).

  2. dyfed

    Black Mountain isn’t Asheville (does the letter-writer not realize that?), and doesn’t want to be. It’s not part of any of those master plans or initiatives, and frankly the community there has no need of them.

    Dobra Tea was a fine establishment, but it wasn’t exactly the right location to make a killing on its premise, and I see no reason to claim the sky is falling in Asheville because Black Mountain has less year-round interest in vegetarian and hippie food service.

  3. jason

    Perhaps Dobra Tea Place should BUY there own property as opposed to renting. Then they wouldn’t have to move.

  4. His Royal Highness Ethelbert Frederick Pennypacker the Third

    Let’s see…

    – Anything that changes without your approval is “elitist.”
    – You want free stuff.

    How very Ashevillian of you.

    Have you started a GoFundMe page yet to pay for your PTSD treatment? Tweeted your Local, State, and Federal officials? Planned a march?

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